Mayor Rob Ford, after a tough week of negotiations, agrees to hand the fate of TCHC’s 675 houses over to a “special working group.”

After a week of tough negotiations, Mayor Rob Ford has agreed to hand the fate of more than 2,600 TCHC tenants to a “special working group” chaired by centrist Councillor Ana Bailão.

The TCHC’s chief executive, Len Koroneos, had proposed the sale of 675 single-family TCHC houses to raise money — an estimated $222 million — for a repair backlog he says has grown to $751 million. Ford had championed the proposal.

But in a compromise with council critics worried about a hasty fire sale, Ford announced at Friday’s special meeting of his executive committee that he would now support the sale of only the 56 houses currently vacant.

Bailão, who often votes against him, and four people with expertise in affordable housing will be tasked with exploring options for the rest.

“The mayor will help me choose the members,” Bailão said. “I gave his office a list and we’ll pick through them.”

The group will give feedback in May to the affordable housing committee Bailão chairs, then submit a report in September. The findings will then go to Ford’s executive committee in October.

The provincial government has final say over the sale of all but 31 of the 675 houses.

Selling the vacant houses was a must-have for Ford and a concession by members of council’s left wing, who support Bailão but don’t want to lose any low-income housing.

The vacant houses will probably fetch between $25 million and $30 million, Koroneos said.

Bailão said her focus is on developing a long-term strategy that maintains the number of units but also attacks the massive waiting list for subsidized housing — not a quick sell-off that would generate significant, but one-time, savings.

When Bailão approached Ford with her plan a week ago, she made it clear she has the support of a majority of councillors. He risked another embarrassing defeat after losing last week’s transit expansion vote.

Every present member of the executive voted for the compromise except Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday, who said living conditions for tenants in TCHC highrises are too dire to accept a delay. Holyday disparaged the compromise plan as “the political option.”

“I don’t think we have much choice,” he said. “The situation is we’ve got a dilapidated stock of buildings that’s only getting worse.”

Sources told the Star during the week that some in Ford’s office wanted the new plan to be his, with a — or the — central role in it. Bailão declined to discuss details of the negotiations.

However, one source said that as late as Thursday a frustrated Ford declared the deal dead, reverting to his demand that the homes be sold as quickly as possible, before talks resumed and he finally agreed to the plan.

“The mayor welcomed the opportunity to work with us and is open to listening to other solutions,” Bailão said. “We think we have a good compromise to maintain the (subsidized) housing stock and possibly increase it.”

The committee heard from several tenants who credited their single-family houses for improving their lives and those of their children.

With files from Daniel Dale

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